Z Reviews Bitching Thread

This is like claiming Dr. Oz is a gateway for good medical advice.

The man profits from misinformation. That should be condemned in any industry.

 

Regarding him ruling the roost at Reddit I heard recently that there was some uproar there about his shilling and he was kicked off or shamed away or something. Maybe I'm wrong, not gonna go look.

 

To me Zeos is not a reviewer, he's a youtube "influencer". Just a personality who happens to spread misinformation and isn't really beholden to any ethical standards.

 

Personally, I like watching Z reviews as the guy has a pretty good personality and it aint really a structured review, so I just chill while I hear him ramble. His entertainment factor is pretty high.

But normally, how I will see if I like headphones is this.
Zreviews generates the hype
Go to head-fi to learn about the headphone (More Hype)
Come to SBAF (measurements, guys seem pretty legit)
Bug every one on the headphones discord (Sorry guys)

audition the headphone (hype drops to zero)

Honestly, the difference in high end headphones and mid end headphones are just the small details done right. An audition really cant show all the aspects of a headphone but it gives you a rough idea of how the headphones sound.

For example. a mid-fi warm bassy sound gets the overall tone right, but there probably are certain issues in the frequency ( treble peak) and the headphones are probably lacking in the micro details, impact and slam of the bass, lushness and soundstage and treble extension when compared to the higher end haedphones.

Honestly the best headphones Ive heard so far are the focal utopia but some may not like their focused presentation. And price lol, a poor student like me cant afford them.

No 1 advice for all headphone purchases: audition the headphones first, dont solely rely on opinions through the web, trust your ears that will be impacted by the purchase of the headphones

 

Youtube.

I'll stick with ThisOldTony for the mellow, and AvE for the raw. They are both a lot more entertaining, and educational, than Z.

As far as I know, ThisOldTony has not yet turned up a pair of 'phones on the lathe, and Ave has not yet disassembled and reviewed one with a chainsaw. It's just a matter of time.

 

Zeos is such trash that him and his content are even banned from /r/headphones. When you're such garbage that you're not allowed into a pile of shit, then you've got problems.

 

For all you fans out there, ZeosPantera is selling early access to some of his reviews, "A/V advice with a priority over the rest of the world", become part of the Zelite ($30 monthly) and autographs ($150 monthly).

https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?c=79996&redirect_uri=/posts/z-review-meze-99-13362628&rid=14903

"Rewards are ZeosPantera's thank you for being a passionate fan." [And sending him money.]

 

OMFG...A/V advice and autographs. That's so lame it can't stand

 

Oh, you shouldn't be so sceptical. At least one chap chose the 150$ plan, though it could have been himself so as to drive interest in this option...

But the kicker is the "thank you" message:


A natural born altruist...

 

This is brilliant. I'm going to start an anti-Zreviews Patreon. I'm gonna be f'ing rich.


"Thank you for joining Elnrik on their journey to beat Zeos to $5000.00 per month."

 

Either his name is Steven Ciofalo or there is a Captain at Zeos Consulting.

 

Good find. Same company logo on Linkedin as above:

 

That is his name. I know from sending him the valhalla

 

I totally get why most users here don't like this guy. Ya, he gets things factually wrong in some of his reviews but his impressions are mostly subjective so it's not really that far off from what 95% of people are posting on Headfi. He has a Patreon. I don't see why this is such a big deal. He puts out content and people voluntarily give him money. He's not stealing from anyone and it's not like the manufacturer's are buying him off like Stereophile or the headphone review sites. I don't really understand how the Amazon partner thing works so I won't comment on that. I do know that he reviews a lot of gear not on Amazon. I just don't understand the fixation. He's a tiny part of a tiny community. I'm not trying to defend him, I don't think anyone should buy something based on his recommendation alone. That being said, I do think he is useful in some limited capacity. You have to remember that people are jumping into this hobby from ibuds and Beats. They don't recognize any of the brands we talk about around here. My mom is convinced her sound bar does surround sound. My girlfriend asked me why my amp has dim light bulbs sticking out of the top. YouTube is a good entry point for people who know literally nothing about whatever they are researching. Zeos was one of the first channels I watched when I was curious about nice headphones. That lead to Headfi and Innerfidelity which eventually lead here. Anyways, that's my 2 cents.

Also, welcome back @k4rstar

 

All this crap has been discussed and rebutted pages earlier in the thread. You and others are beating a dead horse.

 

Idk about that. Most of the flat-earthers and other conspiracy types seem to get most of their info from YouTube personalities and reddit these days. Mis-information is probably one of the most dangerous things to society in our information age.

Edit: Specifically talking about people who spread mis-information on the web. Not YouTube in general.

 

Wow. Someone on the interwebs who knows little about a product tries to make a living by passing themselves off as an expert re that product, in the process introducing many to the concept of caveat emptor. Of course, many "real" experts proclaim this person to be the second coming of Satan, and implying that something must be done to protect the great unwashed from being mislead by this clown (which is how I see the reviewer in question). This is unprecedented, someone call the FBI. Anyone who buys something based on the opinion of some goofball on YouTube without doing their own research deserves the outcome they get. I personally can think of hundreds of better things to do with my time than spending even one second worrying about this asshole and his poor hapless "victims." Watching you guys get all twisted up about him is kind of entertaining though. Thanks to all.

 

I haven't checked out ThisOldTony yet, but AvE is hilarious. His series of videos on the Juicero are fantastic. Every time I start one of this videos I think, "Ah hell, there's no way I'll watch a 20 minute video about a hair dryer," then I do. Super sharp guy, definitely knows his stuff, and I'm always impressed by his ability to map out circuit schematics on the fly. Truly the antithesis of Zeos. You can't watch one of his videos without learning something.

 

This is a really interesting thought. Crossovers are essentially analog filters (i.e., continuous time). So they can introduce phase lead/lag, particularly in the transition bands. And it is indeed uneven because analog filters don't have a linear phase response. This means the phase lag doesn't manifest itself as a pure time delay (it only affects certain frequency bands). In general though, the components of the signal that experience phase distortion are the same ones that are being attenuated by the crossover.

So is it possible for a crossover to impart time delay to some parts of the signal and not others? Technically yes, but those frequencies are also being attenuated, so most of the effects are likely to be inaudible if the speakers are designed well. (This was off the cuff, so if anybody has speaker design experience, I'd be interested in hearing how well this back of the envelope analysis stacks up with your understanding.)

For the record, this type of thing is definitely not what Zeos was going for. He generally has only a vague idea of what he's talking about.